After much consideration, it is time to fold up the tent and go home. This was a very hard decision for me to make because I have so enjoyed the farmer's market. I love all my customers and I have so many wonderful friends who are vendors there . . . But the last three years, my sales have been going down and this past Christmas season wasn't as good as I had hoped. Now all the various licensing and insurance fees are coming due and the money just isn't there.

We still will be making the soaps and various goat's milk products but will be selling those from our home and from DIRT (down at Findlay Market). And maybe from another retail store if we can find one that wants to carry our products.

I can't thank all my customers at the Hyde Park Farmer's Market enough for your support!! God Bless you all!!

My goats are getting fat, well, the does (girls) are getting fat AND this is a good thing!! Fat goats normally mean pregnant goats!! And if my calculations serve me correctly, we should hear the patter of little hooves sometime within the next couple of weeks. I just hope the weather remains "pleasant" . . .

What is it about a new year that everyone has to make "new year resolutions"? I want to lose weight, I want to quit smoking, I want to eat healthier, etc, etc, etc. You know how that goes . . . NOT!!

Well, every year I make my wish list for the year instead of a resolution list. This is what I am wishing for the new year . . .

1. I wish that my husband's health continues because I would like to keep him around for a couple of more years, please!!

2. I wish my son has fantastic success in his new job at Tate Monroe Water Company. And I am so very thankful for the Lord watching over him the last 4 years in the Navy, especially the last 9 1/2 months while he was on deployment in the Middle East.

3. I wish to learn something new this year. Whether it be learning how to decorate a cake or how to make something new out of goat's milk. I want to continue learning new and different things.

4. I wish for new leadership for our country. Our country is in very sad shape - race riots, new violence EVERYWHERE, not only by terrorists, but by some of our own citizens, and health care costs are skyrocketing. Please pray for our country!!!

5. I wish for continued good health for me. A bronchoscopy this past summer revealed that the spots on my lungs are not cancerous - PRAISE the LORD!! And the medications I am on seem to be working on my kidney problems. For the first time in a long time, my last blood tests were almost normal!!

6.. And, I wish for guidance with my business. I fear I have reach the end. Sales at the farmer's market each year have been declining. Yet, my sales at the store in Findlay Market called DIRT have been excellent. So maybe some tough decisions need to be made. The Lord will guide me on this and I know He will lead me in the way I need to go.

Author

Raising goats were never in "the plan." If you had told me 12 years ago that I would be raising goats, I would have laughed in your face! But, at a Valentine's Day Party at my son's Kindergarten, the local Vet showed up with two pygmy goats. As the saying goes, it was love at first sight. And the rest is history . . .